The Modern Facilities Management Podcast

A bad process that you automate is still a bad process. It's just faster, and now it has a timestamp on it.Griffin Hamilton and Yvonne Harrison of CamCode pick up part two of their conversation on automation, moving from clean data into the three pillars that decide whether a rollout actually sticks: standardized process, a real link between the asset and its record, and people who want to use it.What you'll learn:- Why standardizing the workflow has to come before automating it, walked through with an inspection example where seven technicians each have their own method, their own vocabulary, and their own way of capturing data- What bridging physical to digital means in practice, and why printed labels fail first in wash-down, outdoor, and high-heat environments, taking the asset history with them- The three reasons adoption stalls: users don't trust the data, the process feels more complicated than what they had, and nobody showed them the win- Why implementations slip from four months to eighteen, and the front-end work that keeps a go-live date honest- Yvonne's closing sequence: visibility, identification, data integrity, process standardization, and only then automationAbout Yvonne:Yvonne Harrison leads the facilities and asset management market at CamCode, best known for durable asset identification. She has sat on every side of a software implementation: technician building hierarchies, sales, and now the partner side doing field walk-downs and audits. Four years at IBM as an asset lifecycle management SME shaped how she thinks about the whole asset life cycle, from online to disposal.This is part two. If you missed part one on asset visibility and data integrity, start there.Connect with the show:⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠FlowPath⁠Host: Griffin Hamilton ([email protected])The Modern Facilities Management Podcast is presented by FlowPath, facility management software built for modern FM teams. Learn more at getflowpath.com.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review. It helps other FM professionals find the show

Most automation projects don't fail because the software was wrong. They fail because nobody could answer a simpler question first: is our asset data actually trustworthy?Griffin Hamilton sits down with Yvonne Harrison of CamCode for part one of a two-part conversation on what has to be true before you automate anything. You know what you have, and everyone in the building calls it the same thing.What you'll learn:- Why "you can't automate if you can't locate" is the first test of any automation project, and the four failure patterns that give it away: missing assets, duplicate records, inconsistent naming, and disconnected systems- How to stop chasing a perfect asset register and build a consistent one instead, using audits, standardized identification, and a hierarchy that reads the same in every building- How often to reconcile physical assets against the register, and why the answer changes for high-acquisition organizations versus education, where funding cycles drive a three-year audit- Why data ownership has to be assigned by function, so the safety team, the sustainability analyst, and the asset manager can each pull their slice of the same recordAbout Yvonne:Yvonne Harrison leads the facilities and asset management market at CamCode, best known for durable asset identification. She spent four years at IBM as an asset lifecycle management SME and has worked implementation, sales, and hands-on hierarchy setup across roughly a decade in the space. She has seen what happens when a go-live date meets a spreadsheet nobody has audited.Part two picks up with process standardization, connecting physical assets to digital workflows, and the adoption problem that sinks most rollouts.Connect with the show:LinkedInFlowPathHost: Griffin Hamilton ([email protected])The Modern Facilities Management Podcast is presented by FlowPath, facility management software built for modern FM teams. Learn more at getflowpath.com.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review. It helps other FM professionals find the show

Jay Fiske, President of Powerhouse Dynamics, returns to the Modern Facilities Management Podcast for a deep dive into energy management for multi-site retailers and food service operators.Jay breaks down the Internet of Things without the jargon, explains why energy is quietly becoming one of the most controllable line items on the P&L, and unpacks the shift from passive procurement toward proactive, demand-side management. With energy costs climbing 4–5% year over year (and spiking 20–30% in some markets), he makes the case for why so many enterprises are finally moving from "voluntold to find savings" to a real strategy.The heart of the conversation is measurement. Jay walks through the IPMVP framework and the concept of weather normalization — why you can't just compare last July's bill to this July's, and how to prove the true impact of an energy-saving investment by measuring a building against itself. It's the difference between getting lucky with a cool summer and actually knowing your technology works.Whether you manage two locations or two thousand, this episode will help you become a savvier consumer of energy initiatives and build a business case your leadership team can trust.In this episode:What IoT really means (and why the term shouldn't intimidate you)The real drivers behind rising energy costsProcurement vs. SOPs vs. active controls vs. AIThe IPMVP methodology and weather normalization explainedHow to properly measure and present energy savings📚 Learn more about the IPMVP framework Jay references: https://evo-world.org/en/products-services-mainmenu-en/protocols/ipmvpMake sure to check out our main sponsor: https://www.getflowpath.com/

Neil Simons of RC Mowers joins Griffin to talk remote-controlled and autonomous mowers, and how they tackle the labor and safety problems every facilities team faces.Takeaways:RC vs. autonomous: RC mowers keep an operator safely off steep slopes; autonomous mowers run on their own and lay down clean commercial stripes — one operator can run several at once.Labor multiplier, not job-killer: No customer has cut staff. Crews get freed from open-field mowing to focus on higher-value work like trimming, edging, and pruning.Safety first: Removing operators from machines on dangerous slopes prevents accidents. Neil's advice — listen to the boots on the ground; they know when a job feels unsafe.Curb appeal counts: Well-kept grounds shape first impressions for campus tours, recruiting, and hiring.What's next: AI and better cameras will let mowers cut within inches of trees and fences, closing today's precision gap.Resources:RCMowers WebsiteLinkedInRCMowers YouTube

Ryan Chan didn't set out to build software. He was a chemical engineer at a manufacturing plant, watching technicians write work orders on paper, walk back to the office, and retype it all into a desktop system nobody wanted to use. That frustration became UpKeep. Eleven years later it's a 150-person company that's raised $50M, and Ryan's still obsessed with the same thing: making tools the shop floor actually loves to use.In this episode, Ryan and Griffin get into what's changed across a decade in facilities, and what hasn't. They talk about why the only real constant is change, from COVID to tariffs to AI, and what separates the teams that thrive from the ones that stall.A few things we covered:Why "permission to fail" is the culture trait best-in-class teams shareThe one person in every org you should unleash on new tech (hint: the tinker)How to roll out change the right way: single person, to single site, to full orgWhy AI won't climb a ladder or turn a wrench, and why that makes technicians more important, not lessThe difference between using AI as a search bar and using it as a second brain that does real workWhether you run a facilities team or you're just trying to figure out where AI actually fits in the physical world, there's a lot here.UpKeep is the CMMS platform trusted by 4,000+ companies to manage maintenance, safety, and reliability. With built-in AI tools that customize the platform to each organization’s workflows, the platform empowers maintenance teams to reduce downtime and extend asset life — which is why UpKeep is the CMMS chosen by organizations like McDonald’s, Caterpillar, and Chevron.Curious to learn more? Follow ⁠Ryan on LinkedIn⁠ or reach him directly at ⁠[email protected]⁠